What Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar said after the 56-24 win over UAB

What Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar said after completing 15 of 22 passes for 218 yards, three touchdowns and one interception in the 56-24 win over UAB Saturday afternoon at Neyland Stadium:

His path to Tennessee, leaning on his faith and how much it has helped him

“It helped me a lot, especially through that time of like JuCo, not knowing if I wanted to play or not, playing JuCo, transferring to App State, being away from family. Jesus is the one thing I can lean on the most. And when times get hard, lean on Him. When times are good, lean on Him. So it kept me mellow and always had me, like, knowing I have somebody to go talk to whenever I was down and really by myself.” 

Connecting with a family of Appalachian State fans who came to watch him today, seeing them before the game

“Yeah that family is awesome. I’m sure you guys saw (the son) in all in this Tennessee gear. But he went to every App State game dressed as me. App State helmet, jersey, pants, and cleats. So just to see that, the impact I made at App State, it’s awesome. And just the support I still have from those people is truly awesome.”

What he has learned about himself and his abilities here at Tennessee

“It’s learning how to play fast, you know that was a big adjustment for me, and honestly, I’m still learning. We could be faster, but we are still growing week by week. But, I’m super excited where our offense is at right now. I’m excited where I’m at right now, but we could still be better.” 

Tennessee going on the road next week, what he’ll try to tell the younger players about road games 

“Just keep the main thing the main thing. Go out there and execute and do our job. It’s going to be a great environment. Every road game in the SEC is awesome to play in. So just embrace it when you’re running out there, but just keep the focus is on the game and just to execute and play our game.”

His assessment of Tennessee’s offense against the UAB

“I think we did alright, there are a lot of mistakes we made, just like on ourselves, but definitely could be way better. A win is a win, and it’s hard to get wins, so we are obviously gonna celebrate it and embrace it, but we could definitely be a lot better than what we were out there for sure.”

Josh Heupel reaching his 40th win at Tennessee, the impact he has on the program

“Me personally, since I got here, the coaching staff and the players just been super welcoming. And my transition here just like really felt like home as soon as possible. So like the coaches mean a lot to me. They’re super faith-based as well. And to come to a program with players and coaches like that, just welcoming me in and just have something to talk to other than football, like just talk about faith and things like that just made everything just so easy. And I’m super grateful for that.” 

The speed option Tennessee used on the Peyton Lewis touchdown run

“(We) rep it a lot. But the defense, they went into like a zero look, we kept the play on. The defensive end was stuck between me or (Peyton Lewis). So kind of attacked him a little more, stayed on me, just pitched it out, and then P-Lew did the rest and had free grass, so he took it.”

What kind of his tory he has running the option

“We it ran a couple of times at App State, but I can do it.”

Keeping the same demeanor whether it’s a good play or bad play, how much fun he’s having this season

“It’s been amazing. You’ve got to just embrace and have fun with it. All the stress that we did to come here is gone and we have the ability to go out there and just play for Tennessee and play for the fans and just go out there and do what we do. So you can never not be mad at that. I mean, good plays happen, bad plays happen. You just got to keep pushing through and just keep smiling and keep playing.”